Ashley's Journey
by LuNaR LighT
Summary: Ashley's set foot in the world of Expel to fight the demon dragons. She goes into the cave and unexpectedly blacks out, after doing the spell 'Lunar Light'! Soon to meet Rena Lanford, Claude Kenni, Celine Jules and Ashton Anchors. (R/R Please!!!)


Ashley's Journey   


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_Ashley explains, I am the princess and guardian... They may seem like two different jobs, but no... I rather be called the guardian than the PRINCESS... I really hate being a **princess**, but I don't tell people that, they would probably react the wrong way. So I proudly do my duty as being they're... **princess**..._   


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Ashley Lanford is a 19-year-old Heraldic Fencer. Her life wasn't like a normal teenagers, because she is Expel's Guardian and Loyal princess. She loved the planet and vowed at the young age of six to protect it's people. That's why she is here in Salva. 

"Stop!" 

Yells the guard, who pushes Ashley back, "Uh Excuse me, but I've been assigned a job here..." 

Ashley barely takes another step forward but the guard pushes her back again, "Oh yeah right! And I'm the 'Princess of Expel'!" 

Ashley blinks,_ Was he mocking me?_ She thought for a second, "But sir... I am Princess Ashley!" The guard begins to roar with laughter. Ashley's face was steaming, "Move out the way, sir!" She yells. Her voice echoes in the cave, _I hate being called a princess you jerk!_

The guard was laughing so hard, he began to choke, "Sure lady! Go ahead!" He hands her a map, "There are also 4 people in this cave but your the first to go to this location—" When he finally stopped laughing, he saw Ashley running down the hill of the cave. 

Ashley looks left to right and back down to the map, "Hmm... I really don't want to slay this dragon... It's a living creature... But it's causing so much trouble to the miners..." Ashley sighs and puts the map in the red pouch on her right wrist. 

She begins to run again, coming around a corner, she hits something real hard, "Ek!" She screams while pushing off it. _A rock wall... I coulda poked my eyes out... _, "A dead end... This so-called map was wrong..." Ashley says while putting her right hand on her hip, unaware something was lurking from behind her. 

The drift was quite narrow, _I have to be careful of what I do... I have to pay attention... No silly stuff like last time..._

Her eyes shifted to the right and she moves her hand over the opposite shoulder, "I was hoping I didn't have to do this..." She slowly unsheathes both swords while glaring to her right still. 

A few bats could be heard in the cave, and Ashley intense breathing, nothing more. Ashley stepped back and stepped on a loose crack on the ground, causing tiny rocks to fall. All a sudden, the dragons strike at Ashley from behind and she vanishes within thin air, "Leaf Slash!" 

The dragons look around confused until they felt sharp pain. Being slashed three times and Ashley appears behind them saying, "Hey!" The dragon swings it's tail at Ashley, who luckily, parried it and jumped in the air. 

Ashley lands on the ground and looks up at the dragons, "I know your better than that!" The two demon dragons growl at Ashley as she begins to taunt them. She places one of her hands on her hip and the other on her leg nodding her head up and down, "Time to finish this up!" 

She gets out her pose and holds one of her fingers to her side and closes her eyes. Hey hair started to sway side to side. What was happening? Oh... she was about to cast a spell... Indeed a big mistake. With her eyes closed, she was all off guard. The red dragon smirks as it growled something to the other. The blue dragon suddenly smirked agreeing with the other one. It's eyes began to glow a bright shade of blue as a shield appeared in front the duo. The red dragon simply smirked at Ashley and turned it's head to the side. 

Ashley then points her finger forward yelling out the name of the spell, "Light Cross!" But soon discovered, "Oh no..." 

The star shaped hair pen in her hair shined and--- "AaaEEiiEE!" she screams. The hairpin shined more as her own magic went against her. 

The dragons smirked at this foolish creature as she tried to use 'Twin Stab' but the fire dragon simply spitted a small fire ball and knocked the swords out her hands. Not only had her hands been burned, but the tip of one of the swords struck her right cheek leaving a minor cut. 

Ashley was too blinded by her own magic and injured to stand up, fell to the ground. The dragons glared down to Ashley, yes they had been injured by her first attack, barely. They knew somehow she was a great fighter, just careless at times..., and failed at magic, but they weren't going to end this fight there. 

Ashley stood up, stumbling to her feet, shakily holding her one of her fingers to her side once again, "I may be down... but I'm not out... ouch..." She says as she begins to mumble a spell once again. The dragons glared at Ashley as she began to point her finger at them. 

The blue dragon tried to cast another reflection spell, but failed. The dragons stood still for a second, then their eyes began to glow, "Lunar---" Both of the dragons struck at Ashley, just as her finger sparked, "Light!" A moon appeared above both the demon dragons and Ashley as beams began to circle, a blinding light feels the room making Ashley go unconscious to see what happened next. 

"Maybe we should go to a doctor about this---"   
"They might freak out..."   
_Whose talking?_   
"This is getting weird.. "   
_What!? Are you talking to me?_   
"Awrk! Aroo!"   
_That's it!_

Ashley sits up in her bed and yells, "Would you just shut--- eep!" 

Ashley looked at the people who sat in the room. One had to be a sorceress, by the way she dress, and the crest imprinted on her body, it had to be true. She stayed in Mars for 2 years and saw how some of the women dressed... _Eww_. 

She looked to the boy with blonde hair, _He dresses funny..._ but another thought popped in her head, _Weird garments... Is he the 'Hero of Light' I heard of?_

Ashley blinked as she looked to her right. Some people would of probably screamed when they saw this man, but Ashley didn't really see anything wrong with him... other than he had _'dragons on his back' _and there really wasn't nothing wrong with that. He had green shimmering eyes and brown shoulder length hair. He smiled softly as a shade of red appeared in her cheeks. 

It disappears when Ashley looks to the girl with blue hair and a crescent shaped hairpin in her hair. Ashley had light blue hair with silver streaks... but what happened to her _'Star Shaped Hairpin' _Ashley blinked a few times... _P-pointy ears... I use to have pointy ears... I think a doctor operated and made them into these small 'human like' ears..._

Indeed that was true. She was found in a forest nearby by a woman name Rachel who ran the Inn in Cross... meaning that was not Ashley's real mother. Ashley's ears were still soar from the operation from years ago. 

Ashley then looked at her hands, which were burned in the fight with the... 'dragons'. They were now bandaged up. Ashley could feel some pressure on her cheek, Musta patched that up too... Ashley felt bad about losing to the dragons. She was Expel's _guardian_... and look what happened... she had been defeated by a pair of Demon Dragons. 

She sighed at the fact. 4 people, she didn't even know, sat before her, "Who are you?" Was the only thing she could say. Hair fell down to her eyes when the blonde haired boy stood up, "I'm Claude Kenni, she's Celine Jules, He's Ashton Anchors and she's Rena Lanford—" 

Ashley shot a look at Rena who was looking back. Ashley felt as she was thinking for more than one person, but she finally got together her thoughts, _She has the same last name as me... _Claude watch as the two stared at each other. 

He clears his throat and both girls look at him. "Okay... All we want to know is... why were you in the Salva Drift in the first place?" 

The woman whose name was Celine stood up in front of Ashley and included, "You should of known darling, better not to cast such a Advance Heraldry spell in a narrow cave like that! You could have been killed!" 

Celine seemed to be mad than concerned to Ashley who looked at the two who were questioning her, "Umm... I—" But they wouldn't let her speak for some reason. "The cave was narrow and you cast something like 'Lunar Light'!? Darling!" 

Ashley raises her eye brows, "I'm sorry..." Ashley looks down, _Yeah... I was kinda a fool for casting that spell... After my last incident..._

Everyone's attention was soon brought to the turning doorknob on the hotel room's door, "Excuse me." 

A nurse then walks in the room, she gulps as she walks towards Ashley. "Okay miss, This might hurt a—" 

She gulps and Ashley blinks, "What might hurt?" Ashley says while looking to the nurse who seemed to be counting. 

Everything in the room but the sink in the bathroom leaking, was silent, you can almost hear someone blink. 

Ashley moved her legs under the cover and broke the silence, "Umm... did something bad happen while I was in the Salva Drift?" 

Ashton stood up and walked over to Ashley and places his hand on hers. Ashley looks down at his hand and back up at his face, "Well... Something bad did happen... 2 things at that... But let's worry about the second thing first." 

Ashley tilted her head to the side, as if she were a child, trying to figure out what was wrong, "Okay... The second thing first... Please tell me what that is." 

The nurse stands straight and begins to take deep breaths, Rena walks over, and tries to calm her down. Ashley looks to the nurse and back to Ashton. 

"Well... When we found you in the drift..." He began, "You were unconscious. Problem one had already taken place. But remember! We're on problem two—" Ashton holds up two fingers and Ashley nods, "Okay. I guess when you cast your last spell—" 

Celine interrupts him, "Lunar Light!" Ashley and Ashton shoot her a look, "Sorry... " 

Ashton looks back to Ashley, "Excuse my friend's rudeness." Celine narrows her eyes at Ashton, as if she were going to whack him in the head with her rod, but she simply turn away from Ashton and started to talk to Claude. "Like I was saying before. When you probably cast your spell, the energy must of---" 

Ashley was on top of the covers, her hands on her legs, she nodded. Ashton continues, "Erm... Yes... The energy must of lured some monsters to you. This is when problem two comes in—" 

Ashley leans closer, "Okay..." 

Ashton gulps, trying to take his green _shimmering_ eyes away from hers, "Those monsters were poisonous..." Ashley's face went blue, "P-poison...onus?" Ashton looked down, "Yes... And if you don't get this shot... you will..." 

Ashley fell back in bed with her eyes looking as if they were swirling, _silver and green._ Celine looks over Ashton shoulder, "Well... I guess all you have to do now is explain problem one!" To Ashton... She sounded as if that were an easy task, just because this girl, they knew nothing about, seem harmless, but... 

Ashton looked to the corner of the room, _Twin Swords. _She must been an _Heraldic Fencer_ as he was, but needed a bit more practice. 

Ashton turns to the nurse, "You can go ahead now." The nurse nods and slowly walks to the now sprawled out Ashley, her knees wobbly as she walked. 

Ashton turned to Claude, "When we leave here... I guess we'll have another person with us." He turns his head slightly towards Ashley, who seem to flinch as the needle was injected into her leg. He saw her eyelids slowly close, and open again and instantly closed. He blinked once, they didn't open no more. 

Claude looks over Ashton's other shoulder, "You think she can fight? I mean... we found her flat on her side..." 

Ashton glares at Claude, "What are you trying to say?" He turns his head to Claude so he can see him movements. 

Claude holds one of his fingers up, "That she can't fight!" Claude move so Ashton could see exactly what he was doing. 

The nurse sighs in relief and and Claude and Ashton look to her to hear what she has to say. 

"Well... Mr. Kenni. She'll be okay in the morning. Just let her rest here tonight and she can _leave_ with you in the **_morning_**. " 

Claude nods and the nurse looks at Ashton before she leaves the room. Terror feels her eyes and she walks out the room. "..." 

Ashton blinks, "What's her problem?" The dragons on his back nip at his ears, "...Oh woe is me... STOP THAT!" With that, the dragons laugh and stop. 

Celine laughs, but her attention is soon brought to Rena, "You've been quiet darling... Something wrong?" 

Rena looks up to Celine and nods her head side to side, her hair going the way her head is shook, "It's something about that girl..." 

Celine places one of her hands on her hip, "You don't like her either?" 

Rena nods her head side to side, "You judge people too quickly." 

Claude scratches the back of his head, "I have a funny feeling about her too..." He looks to Ashley, who looked like a baby, for a fact her thumb was in her mouth. 

Rena stands up and places both hands on her hip, "You two need to stop judging people by the way you see them! For all we know, this could be a great person!" 

Celine looks back over Ashton's shoulder, "Her! Be someone great!? Rena darling... You need to rest... We found the girl flat on her face with dragons on her back!" She turns and points to Ashley, "NOW SHE'S SUCKING HER THUMB LIKE A BABY!?" 

Ashton kept looking at Ashley, "It's something familiar about this girl..." He closes his eyes and goes into a thinking state, sitting in the chair beside Ashley bed, falling out at first for the fact his eyes were still close, "..." He gets up and redness appears in his cheeks as her successfully finds his way to the chair this time. 

Claude blinks, "Anyway..." He walks up to Rena, "You seem to have a lot of faith in someone you don't know..." 

Rena glares at Claude, "Oh! So I must have a lot of faith in you too, right!? How would you know if I don't know her or not?" She seems to be ticked off now, "The same goes for you too, Celine!" 

Claude opened his mouth to say something but thought it was best to just keep his mouth close. Celine walks up to Rena, kinda surprised, kind fumed, "If you know her, then _how_ do you know her?" 

Rena turns away from everyone. She seem to have something in her hand. "I don't know... I just feel as if I know her..." She says while standing in the corner. 

Ashton grabs a chair and pulls it up to the bed. He sits down and begins to talk to Ashley, even though she is sleep "I'm looking for a way to exorcise these dragons on my back... I know when you find out their on your back, you'll want them removed... I can tell by the look on your face-" Claude interrupts his one-on-one convocation. 

Claude looks over Ashton's shoulder and at Ashley's face, "How can you tell? I mean... Look at her! She's... She's-" 

Ashton's eyes shift to his shoulder, "Sleeping right now. So I think you guys should leave." 

Rena nods, "Okay, Ashton. I'll be back before sun set." 

She grabs Claude and Celine and walk out the door. Ashton sighs and walks over to a window, "Claude and Celine... I really don't get them two..."   


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_And That's part one of Ashley's Journey! ^_^ I hope I improved A LITTLE in my writing... I bet I haven't... PLEASE R/R! And try not to be rude... If you want to do that... please E-mail me... if any errors... E-MAIL me... Is that hard? I hope not... Next chapter should be around soon (hopefully) ~ Ashi-Chan_   


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